


Paying It Forward

by stultiloquent



Series: Stories from Titansverse [2]
Category: Teen Titans - All Media Types, Titans (TV 2018)
Genre: Background Relationships, Coming Out, Found family themes, Gen, Implied/Referenced Character Death, Implied/Referenced Suicide attempt, Missing Scene, Multi, Team as Family, Underage Drinking
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-06-16
Updated: 2020-06-16
Packaged: 2021-03-03 22:01:37
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,866
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/24732781
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/stultiloquent/pseuds/stultiloquent
Summary: Bruce had given Dick a roof over his head, but Dick hadn't had a family since the circus - until he met her.Dick shifted a little where he was sprawled on the carpet so he could meet Donna's gaze. "Have you ever felt like... you aren't who you thought you were?"
Relationships: Dick Grayson & Donna Troy
Series: Stories from Titansverse [2]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/1718821
Comments: 4
Kudos: 35
Collections: DCTVGen Pride Month, Dick Grayson Rare Pair Challenge





	Paying It Forward

**Author's Note:**

> This fic was written for the DCTVGen Pride Month event. The mods over there set a pretty strict rule to write fics without spotlighting any romantic or sexual relationships, so all non-platonic relationships are kept off-screen. This fic also follows the same headcanons as my other Titans fic so some referenced relationships fall outside of canon. Full list of referenced ships in the end notes.

"Can I tell you something?"

Confessional words carried over the rooftop breeze caught Jason's attention. They were at the top of the Titans Tower, Dick having followed Jason to coax him back to even ground before it was too late. Perhaps a huge part of reaching out to the young hero was motivated by his need to atone and be forgiven for past mistakes he could no longer rectify. But more than that, Dick knew he wanted to be there to catch Jason if he fell again. Bruce wasn't the best person to lean on for either of them. But someone had been there for Dick, and he believed in paying that kindness forward.

"You know you can tell me anything." Ten years ago, Donna had said these words to him so easily, propped up on her elbows on Dick's bed, feet kicked up casually like this was another extension of her home. Perhaps it was. A space carved out by the two of them, a space for misfits like them to call home.

Bruce had given Dick a roof over his head, but Dick hadn't had a family since the circus - until he met _her_.

Someone to bandage his wounds, not because he couldn't do it himself, but because she wanted to. Someone to share his most embarrassing or vulnerable moments with, because she would trust him with the same vulnerability and to be there when she needed him to be in turn.

Dick shifted a little where he was sprawled on the carpet so he could meet Donna's gaze. "Have you ever felt like... you aren't who you thought you were?"

Donna stilled and gave Dick her full attention, waiting for him to piece his thoughts together into words.

"It's like... I was raised one way. You know, being Robin to Batman, and being the ward of Bruce Wayne... There are certain things people expect me to be. But when I'm at these parties that Bruce throws, or when I'm with the guys at school in the locker room... I don't want to be that kind of guy all the time. I don't want to ask a girl to dance, not always. Sometimes I..." Dick trailed off, picking at some lint on the carpet. When he spoke again, his voice wavered with uncertainty.

"I notice the boys too. And... I think I might not be straight."

A pause. And then--

"Dick, hey. Come here."

Dick jerked his head up at Donna's gentle command. Sheets rustled as she sat up properly, criss-crossing her legs at the foot of the bed. She patted the spot next to her, but it was the soft look in her eyes that truly began to disarm Dick of his doubts and hesitation. "Come up here."

Dick obeyed and crawled up to perch next to the girl who was really his sister in all but name. Almost instantly, she pulled him into a one-armed hug, knowing his need for physical comfort no matter how much he still denied himself of it in a subconscious emulation of Bruce's stunted love language. Dick melted against her, his tension evaporating in the familiar embrace.

"Did I ever tell you about my mothers in Themyscira?" Donna's hand stroked reassuringly along his shoulder as she spoke.

Dick tilted his head and and looked at her quizzically. "I thought your whole thing was that you were raised by a village of women?"

"Smartass." Donna chuckled. "Yeah no, that's only one part of it. Diana had an on-and-off girlfriend for a while." She paused to let that sink in. Dick looked shocked but intrigued, so Donna carried on.

"I wasn't supposed to know about the girlfriend, at first. Diana wasn't sure if it was a relationship that was going to work out; the woman isn't of Themysciran descent, and Queen Hippolyta didn't approve of the tribe of Amazons she came from. But she never forbade them from meeting. It was clear they truly loved each other and cared for each other. And well, it was only a matter of time before I found out." Donna laughed sheepishly, recalling the less than PG scene she'd stumbled upon with a slight blush on her cheeks.

"But Dick, it wasn't just them. Many of the women who raised me also had wives or girlfriends of their own. It was just a fact of life in Themyscira." Donna turned to look at Dick fully. "I don't think it matters much. If you love someone, you love someone. But I am glad you told me."

Donna had smiled and said it all so simply, it was all Dick could do to pull her in for a bone-crushing hug.

"So, Roy Harper, huh?" They were sprawled in Donna's bedroom this time, at the Titans Tower, where Dawn had barricaded the three of them inside for a "girl's talk", drunken giggles trailing after them as she turned the lock. Hank had knocked on the door for a while, but eventually gave up, shuffling away to watch over the rest of the guys before they got into more trouble.

Now here they were, flopped on top of Donna's bed sheets, skating on the edge of a buzz from all the gin Roy had snuck into the fruit punch earlier.

"Oh, shut up, Boy Wonder. I've seen you look at him too."

"Well, he does have a cute face. A very cute, kissable face."

There was a dull thwack when Donna's pillow hit Dick in the face. Then again. And again. Dawn was of no help, too busy giggling at the trouble Dick brought onto himself.

"Oof! Okay, okay, I'll stop perving on your boy." That earned him a whack in the stomach. Followed by another burst of giggles from Dawn at the other end of the bed.

"Not your boy, okay, okay!" Dick rolled out of the way before he continued. "Just your future boyfriend--"

He stumbled off of the bed, his well-trained reflexes narrowly preventing him from face-planting when the room tilted sideways. Donna's next thwack missed its target. 

"No but seriously Donna, Roy's asked me for tips on asking you out too, you know?"

Donna faltered on her next hit. "Really?" 

Dick swayed a little on his feet, and then his brain caught up to the conversation, and he groaned. "I probably shouldn't have told you. He wanted it to be a surprise."

"No, you're telling us all the juicy details, right now." Donna discarded the pillow and immediately lunged out to pull Dick back onto the cuddle pile.

"Okay okay, please just don't hit me in the stomach anymore, I don't wanna puke on your sheets."

"His dad took Garth away from us! Away from me!" Donna yelled at him. 

They were on the rooftop of the Tower, sequestered from all prying eyes. So nobody would bear witness when Donna's tears finally spilled after weeks of fighting it and pushing forward like the Atlantean hadn't shaken her to her core and then left her life just as abruptly.

"I know, Donna." Dick took two steps forward and then faltered, unsure if Donna was going to push him away again. "I swear, we _will_ get Deathstroke. But Hank and Dawn are right, Joey is an innocent in all this. And Donna..."

Donna looked up at him with red-rimmed eyes, arms wrapped protectively around herself. For a moment, Dick felt all of 16 years old again, hapless and floundering to comfort Donna after Roy had broken her heart. But more than ever Dick felt the call of the Mission, the weight of being the leader the team needed pulling at him from the other side. Like a piece of rope caught in a tug of war, torn between being Robin and being a good friend.

Dick dug his heels in, and refused to succumb to the messy feelings warring inside his mind.

"If we don't help Joey, he will become the next casualty. He's involved now, whether we want him to be or not. And this Deathstroke - you _know_ his track record. I just--" Dick looked away for a second, pacing himself before his thoughts ran away from him.

"I just want everyone safe. I need everyone accounted for, especially right now."

Dick took another two steps and closed the distance between him and Donna.

"Please Donna." He placed a hand on her arm, carefully so as not to spook the Amazon. "You don't need to step up and help lead the team this time. I just want you to be there with us. With _me_. Don't shut me out, okay?" 

Dick could pinpoint the exact moment the light in Donna's watery eyes shifted, when the tense line of her shoulders dropped in concession and she let him pull her into a hug.

But as Dick peered out over Donna's shoulders at the San Francisco skyline, he couldn't help but spare a thought to the third weight tugging heavily on his heart. The thought he had left unsaid, the thought that _Joey_ is _his Garth in this equation_ , and _he didn't want history to repeat itself_. He kept those feelings to himself out of a foolish superstitious precaution, afraid that giving voice to them would somehow speak them into existence.

It ended up coming true, anyway.

But after all these years, after all the mistakes and regrets between them, Donna still had a place for Dick on her couch, still came running when Dick came calling. And so Dick would continue to be there, waiting to pick up the phone on his end, or opening the doors to his home - _their_ home - whenever Donna needed him to. 

"So, you and Kori?"

They were sitting in front of the fireplace at the Tower, each nursing a beer. It was late at night, Donna had just returned from her brief stint with Kori in Chicago, but Kori was nowhere to be seen.

"She said she ran into a guy she knew." Donna shrugged and took another swig from her bottle.

Dick glanced at her, eyebrows raised. " _She_ ran out on _you_?"

"No, no, we never really... I don't think it counts as running away if it never led to anything more."

"But you wanted it to be more." Dick paused, taking in Donna's silence, which would've fooled anyone else but him. "You still want it."

"I-- yeah." Donna sighed and held her hands up as if to say _you caught me_. "I'm... Sorry? For stealing your girl?"

Dick laughed, bemused. "She was never mine. She knew what she wanted, what she needed - and I wasn't in the right place to give her that."

"And you? You think I'm what she needs?"

"Better you than me. You're Donna Troy. Older, smarter, prettier..."

Donna gave him a deadpan stare.

"... And you know who you want to be. She likes that in a partner. I'm still figuring that one out for myself." Dick stretched his arms up and then leaned back into his seat, lacing his fingers behind his head as he stared up into the ceiling.

"You'll figure it out." Donna's voice was a solid offering of faith and confidence, more solid than the warmth of the dancing flames.

**Author's Note:**

> Mentioned relationships:  
> \- Diana/Artemis of Bana-Mighdall  
> \- Donna Troy/Roy Harper  
> \- Donna Troy/Garth  
> \- Dick Grayson/Joey Wilson  
> \- Dick Grayson/Koriand'r  
> \- Donna Troy/Koriand'r
> 
> I normally don't ask for readers to tip me, but it's Pride Month and due to the escalating situation in the US the black LGBTQ+ community is more at risk of systemic violence than ever. If you enjoyed this story, please consider donating to any of the non-profit organisations listed [here (scroll down to the "Funds" section to begin)](https://docs.google.com/document/d/1Gwl9omY8l5dUCkK4Y2llKAsfx5asES9zWn4Tr27QhTU/mobilebasic) to support our black brothers, sisters, and non-binary friends.
> 
> Thank you for reading, and I hope you stay safe, stay strong, and stay proud. ✊🏼✊🏽✊🏾✊🏿🌈


End file.
